If you follow this blog, you know that turning this blog into a sustainable, growing income stream is a huge priority for me. I document my progress each month with a monthly blog update. The blog updates typically include traffic growth as well as income for the month.

Traffic & Readership

I like to break my traffic down into three categories: visits, page views and eye ball time. Since page views per visit can depend on a look and feel and how a blog is organized, the eye ball time is probably the most accurate number when comparing blog to blog. Let’s look at each…

Total Visits

October 2009: 6,387 visits
November 2009: 6,996 visits
December 2009: 7,735 visits January 2010: 12,354 visits (59.7% increase) or 398 visits per day

The above total visit numbers break into the following categories: search, referral and direct traffic. My goal is to show monthly increases across the board in each category.

I experienced a large jump in visits this month when compared to last month. I think the holidays depressed my December numbers (even though I had growth in December), so the jump was a little larger than normal for January. Either way, I’m excited and very encouraged to get a major leg up in traffic.

Please note that I used Google Analytics for the above data. I tend to think Site Meter is more accurate, but I couldn’t get all the data that I wanted for the above metrics from Site Meter, so I chose to keep it consistent by getting all information out of GA.

Blog Income

Huge increase in Adsense revenue this month, leaping over my $100 monthly goal. This is a very encouraging sign and I hope that it continues. I don’t imagine I will top it in February, but as long as the average continues to move upward, I’m happy.

Private Advertisements

November 2009: $285.00
December 2009: $90.00January 2010: $90.00

I didn’t sign many new deals this past month, but the revenue that is recurring each month is increasing which is what I want long term. I now have three deals that pay each month through PayPal subscriptions. The consistent monthly income is what I’m shooting for.

Overall Thoughts

This was a very encouraging month for the blog with the first large monthly increase in traffic (approx 60%) in some time. Also, Adsense performance was very exciting. If I can hold these gains and then make another leg up in the next few months, things will be looking great.

I mentioned last month that I broke the 700 subscriber mark. Well I jumped over the 800 mark within a single month which is great. As I show below, my goal is 1500 by end of the year.

2010 Goals Progress

As I mentioned at the start of the year, I have the following goals for 20smoney.

Alexa ranking under 120,000 by the end of 2010 – While my Alexa ranking is improving, this might be tough, as it gets exponentially harder the lower you go.

Google Pagerank of 5 by the end of 2010 – I’ve gotten a lot more quality backlinks in just this past month. I feel pretty good about hitting PR 5.

25,000 visits a month by the end of 2010 – Definitely on track for this one.

Averaging over $100 per month in Google Adsense income by the end of 2010 – Well I sailed past the $100 mark in the first month of the year, let’s hope that it becomes consistent. If it does, I might have to raise this goal.

Averaging over $400 per month in total blog income by the end of 2010 – Very likely with the traffic growth trajectory currently.

1500 RSS subscribers by the end of 2010 – I pretty much added 100 subscribers in January. At that pace, I will hit 1500.

Well done and very detailed! You are literally the complete opposite of me in terms of tracking my site

I haven't looked at Google Analytics in months. Maybe I'm afraid, or maybe I'm just lazy. The only thing that I enjoy looking at is my Alexa ranking through the toolbar and badge, and now through The Samurai Alexa Challenge which you're welcome to join.

I need to hire a consultant to do an analysis for me, and work on stuff it seems!

Well, to be honest, once you do this kind of post once, you just copy it and re-fill in the #s when you check Analytics at the end of the month. It's pretty easy and its fun to see the numbers month-to-month actually spelled out for you in such a form.

Alexa is a good indicator, but its interesting I've found it to be very inaccurate at times. But nothing's perfect so it's definitely worthwhile to follow.

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A tough economic environment means it is difficult for the masses looking to do nothing more than be an employee. To prosper in this environment you have to be creative, innovative and willing to compete and work harder than your neighbor. I believe we're increasingly moving towards a time where more people work multiple jobs and make a living in a number of different ways - increasingly moving away from the era where a man works for a single company for an entire career. I believe in working hard to generate multiple streams of income and often discuss ways to make money online to achieve financial freedom. My latest interest is the Ubinary review.